Bill Papastergiadis, a Greek Australian voice on the Victorian Multicultural Commission

Bill Papastergiadis, the President of the Greek Community of Melbourne and a tireless campaigner for multiculturalism, has been appointed as a new Commissioner of the Victorian Multicultural Commission, an independent body that acts as conduit between Victoria’s multicultural communities and Government.

The Greek community knows Mr Papastergiadis for his campaigning of matters of interest to them, constantly pushing for strengthened ties between the governments of Greece and Australia while working closely with many other multicultural groups.

In the past, Mr Papastergiadis has campaigned for many issues from the Diaspora vote to a Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) between Greece and Australia.

As head of arguably the largest Greek community outside Greece, Mr Papastergiadis has participated in numerous multicultural programmes.

Apart from his legal career as the Managing Partner of award-winning Moray & Agnew, he is also the Chairman of South Melbourne Football Club and holds numerous other positions. In May, the Ethnic Communities’ Council of Victoria (ECCV) announced a new partnership with Mr Papastergiadis’ firm which will be providing pro bono legal advice to ECCV to support its works advocating Victoria’s migrant and refugee communities.

“I am excited to bring my experience and insights to this important role with the VMC. I strongly believe the richness of Victoria’s diverse multicultural communities is one of our greatest strengths as a state. I am honoured to play a part in advocating on behalf of all multicultural communities and committed to continuing the good work of Commission in its valuable mission to help to strengthen the relationships of these communities with government and with each other,” Mr Papastergiadis said.

Following the announcement of the eight new appointees to the VMC, Victorian Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Ros Spence said, “The new commissioners bring valuable experience, and I look forward to working with them to ensure we are supporting multicultural communities to the best of our ability.”

She added, “The Commissioners are a vital link between Victoria’s multicultural communities and Government – and those relationships have never been more important.”

neoskosmos.com